Low Valued Assets and Their Overlooked Costs – Remote Monitoring as a Solution

Low Valued Assets and Their Overlooked Costs – Remote Monitoring as a Solution

People tend to gravitate towards the higher value assets – simply because they are critical to the core function of the business. And while improving their performance can have a big impact on the business, I’ve noticed a general trend: The more important the asset, the more challenging it is to make incremental improvements with meaningful impact. Here I’ll discuss the advantages of remote monitoring systems for low value assets to save money and time.

Are Your Low Value Assets Costing More than They Should?

That’s when I always bring up the lower-value assets. These “unsung heroes” – which can include water tanks, transfer pumps, generators, or other ancillary equipment – may not do the heavy lifting for the core business function, but without them, the business function would break.  I find that our customers often overlook the costs of maintenance associated with these hidden assets. These assets end up costing companies thousands of dollars a year. Usually, this is because companies still use manual processes instead of remote monitoring to manage, maintain, and control them. The assets which are intended to support operations become a silent killer of efficiency.

Deploying Remote Monitoring Systems

My next question in the conversation, then, becomes this: At what point do you begin to address these costs and deploy remote monitoring systems that can eliminate unnecessary site visits on supporting assets?

This is where the overlooked ROI lies, especially in times of economic uncertainty or industry downturn. I like to think about it this way: In times where business is not booming, industrial companies are going to have to find ways to make their employees do more with less. A lot of times, they end up just reducing operating staff in times of stress… only to end up paying employees overtime, increasing employee safety risk, and deteriorating working conditions and culture – which can have long term negative impacts. Instead of trying to run the same operations with a smaller workforce, what if they invested in remote asset management technology and IoT to get the data they need from supporting assets, without having to physically go to sites? This can save industrial businesses a tremendous amount of time and money, especially during periods of economic uncertainty.

Customer Example: Remote Monitoring

Read the full blog post including an example of a large US steel producer implementing a remote monitoring system on a steel plant in Indiana.

 

This article  was written by Graham Holt, the Chief Product Officer of WellAware.us. Graham is responsible for overall product definition, prioritization and delivery for WellAware. Graham works with WellAware customers and brings his experience in lean practices to accelerate time to value. Graham has worked across multiple industries including Industrial Process Control and Optimization, Telecommunications, Finance and Security. Graham graduated from Leeds Becket University (UK) with degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.